Create media for automated unattended install of Windows 10

johngalt · 20 Dec 2020

Pffft. For S&Gs, I'll relate my history.

Texas Instruments TI-99/4A - Wikipedia - I had a cassette tape 'drive' that was connected to the machine via a 9 pin Serial to a 3 wire that connected to the cassette tape recorder - even saved some of my very first BASIC programs to cassette!
Tandy 1000 - Wikipedia - We had an *extra* 5.25" floppy (alas, both the internal and external were only 360k), no hard card whatsoever, though it had a low-profile (ISA?) slot that *something* could have been installed in - don't remember what anymore.
Jeremy Newman - My Computers - Gateway 2000 486/sx - I had the Gateway 2000 486SX/25 model, with pretty much every spec listed there - although we had to wait over 3 months for the 14.4k modem to arrive (after taking delivery of the actual computer) as it was back-ordered. I eventually moved from DOS 5 to 6, then 6.1, then 6.22 on it, and upgraded Win 3.1 to 3.11 for WorkGroups (all via 3.5" floppy). Even had that exact printer model too. I eventually also upgraded the CPU, dropping in a 486 DX2/66 (but since the mobo only ran at a switchable bus of 20/25, the max I could get it to operate at was 50 MHz) and up to 8 MB RAM. The HDs were later upgraded to a Conner 425 MB and Conner 850 MB (which, strangely enough, would work perfectly fine on a single IDE channel together, but neither would work with *ANY* other ID on the same IDE channel, regardless of the jumper setting (Master / Slave / Auto / not installed).
HP Pentium (not Pro) 200 MHz machine, which I believe came with a 1 GB HD, that I later upgraded to 2 GB, then 3.1 GB, and this was the machine that I was using when I had my eBay fiasco (I bid on a 19" CRT, then the next day bid on a better deal for a 19" CRT, won both, asked the first seller if I could back out, he said no, so I ended up buying both and that is how I started my foray into using dual monitors). I ran Windows 98 SE on it, then Windows 2000 Pro, and eventually WinXP, and it lasted me a while. It also entertained numerous upgrades, primarily an internal ZIP drive, better modems (went to a USRobotics 33.6K that was firmware upgradeable to a 56k, but I had too many DAC conversions to go through for Internet access so I never achieved anything reliable over 31.8k, ever). When I first moved to Atlanta in early 2000, I moved up to broadband, and went through a variety of PCI NICs trying to stay connected at the fastest speeds that I could at that time.

After that I had a variety of machines, plus laptops, and if memory serves me correctly, I had an MSI mobo with a Pentium 4 (Northwood) CPU, then a Core2Quad 6600 on an nForce based mobo (forgot the RAM, maybe1 GB later upgraded to 4 GB?), then the last beast being the Core i7 965 EE on an eVGA X58 Classified 3 mobo with 12 GB RAM and the current beast and my work laptop listed in the computer specs below.

Incidentally, my childhood best friend, who lived 2 doors down from me, had (well, his father did) a pair of HeathKits that I played around on, and the family across the street had Commodores (VIC-20 and its predecessor, IIRC).

hsehestedt · 20 Dec 2020

Wow, that's pretty fantastic. Looks like both of us have some real history with this stuff

johngalt · 20 Dec 2020

I can only imagine what the histories are like for folks like @Kari and @EdTittle....

hsehestedt · 20 Dec 2020

No kidding. Would love to hear some stories from them!

George King · 03 Jan 2021

Hi I followed UEFI partitioning but still without success and I'm endig with <DiskConfiguration> error

Here is my autounattend.xml, x86 works without problem as I'm installing 32bit on MBR, amd64 installing ends in error
Anybody can help me please whats wrong in this settings?

Code:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<unattend xmlns="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:unattend">
	<settings pass="generalize">
		<component name="Microsoft-Windows-PnpSysprep" processorArchitecture="amd64" publicKeyToken="31bf3856ad364e35" language="neutral" versionScope="nonSxS" xmlns:wcm="http://schemas.microsoft.com/WMIConfig/2002/State" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance">
			<DoNotCleanUpNonPresentDevices>false</DoNotCleanUpNonPresentDevices>
			<PersistAllDeviceInstalls>false</PersistAllDeviceInstalls>
		</component>
		<component name="Microsoft-Windows-PnpSysprep" processorArchitecture="x86" publicKeyToken="31bf3856ad364e35" language="neutral" versionScope="nonSxS" xmlns:wcm="http://schemas.microsoft.com/WMIConfig/2002/State" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance">
			<DoNotCleanUpNonPresentDevices>false</DoNotCleanUpNonPresentDevices>
			<PersistAllDeviceInstalls>false</PersistAllDeviceInstalls>
		</component>
	</settings>
	<settings pass="oobeSystem">
		<component name="Microsoft-Windows-Deployment" processorArchitecture="amd64" publicKeyToken="31bf3856ad364e35" language="neutral" versionScope="nonSxS" xmlns:wcm="http://schemas.microsoft.com/WMIConfig/2002/State" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance">
			<Reseal>
				<Mode>OOBE</Mode>
			</Reseal>
		</component>
		<component name="Microsoft-Windows-Deployment" processorArchitecture="x86" publicKeyToken="31bf3856ad364e35" language="neutral" versionScope="nonSxS" xmlns:wcm="http://schemas.microsoft.com/WMIConfig/2002/State" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance">
			<Reseal>
				<Mode>OOBE</Mode>
			</Reseal>
		</component>
		<component name="Microsoft-Windows-International-Core" processorArchitecture="amd64" publicKeyToken="31bf3856ad364e35" language="neutral" versionScope="nonSxS" xmlns:wcm="http://schemas.microsoft.com/WMIConfig/2002/State" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance">
			<InputLocale>0409:00000409</InputLocale>
			<SystemLocale>en-US</SystemLocale>
			<UILanguage>en-US</UILanguage>
			<UILanguageFallback>en-US</UILanguageFallback>
			<UserLocale>en-US</UserLocale>
		</component>
		<component name="Microsoft-Windows-International-Core" processorArchitecture="x86" publicKeyToken="31bf3856ad364e35" language="neutral" versionScope="nonSxS" xmlns:wcm="http://schemas.microsoft.com/WMIConfig/2002/State" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance">
			<InputLocale>0409:00000409</InputLocale>
			<SystemLocale>en-US</SystemLocale>
			<UILanguage>en-US</UILanguage>
			<UILanguageFallback>en-US</UILanguageFallback>
			<UserLocale>en-US</UserLocale>
		</component>
		<component name="Microsoft-Windows-Shell-Setup" processorArchitecture="amd64" publicKeyToken="31bf3856ad364e35" language="neutral" versionScope="nonSxS" xmlns:wcm="http://schemas.microsoft.com/WMIConfig/2002/State" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance">
			<TimeZone>W. Europe Standard Time</TimeZone>
			<AutoLogon>
				<Enabled>true</Enabled>
				<LogonCount>9999999</LogonCount>
				<Username>Administrator</Username>
				<Password>
					<PlainText>true</PlainText>
					<Value></Value>
				</Password>
			</AutoLogon>
			<OOBE>
				<HideEULAPage>true</HideEULAPage>
				<HideWirelessSetupInOOBE>true</HideWirelessSetupInOOBE>
				<NetworkLocation>Home</NetworkLocation>
				<ProtectYourPC>1</ProtectYourPC>
				<SkipMachineOOBE>true</SkipMachineOOBE>
				<SkipUserOOBE>true</SkipUserOOBE>
			</OOBE>
			<UserAccounts>
				<AdministratorPassword>
					<PlainText>true</PlainText>
					<Value></Value>
				</AdministratorPassword>
				<LocalAccounts>
					<LocalAccount wcm:action="add">
						<Group>Administrators</Group>
						<Name>Administrator</Name>
						<Password>
							<PlainText>true</PlainText>
							<Value></Value>
						</Password>
					</LocalAccount>
				</LocalAccounts>
			</UserAccounts>
		</component>
		<component name="Microsoft-Windows-Shell-Setup" processorArchitecture="x86" publicKeyToken="31bf3856ad364e35" language="neutral" versionScope="nonSxS" xmlns:wcm="http://schemas.microsoft.com/WMIConfig/2002/State" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance">
			<TimeZone>W. Europe Standard Time</TimeZone>
			<AutoLogon>
				<Enabled>true</Enabled>
				<LogonCount>9999999</LogonCount>
				<Username>Administrator</Username>
				<Password>
					<PlainText>true</PlainText>
					<Value></Value>
				</Password>
			</AutoLogon>
			<OOBE>
				<HideEULAPage>true</HideEULAPage>
				<HideWirelessSetupInOOBE>true</HideWirelessSetupInOOBE>
				<NetworkLocation>Home</NetworkLocation>
				<ProtectYourPC>1</ProtectYourPC>
				<SkipMachineOOBE>true</SkipMachineOOBE>
				<SkipUserOOBE>true</SkipUserOOBE>
			</OOBE>
			<UserAccounts>
				<AdministratorPassword>
					<PlainText>true</PlainText>
					<Value></Value>
				</AdministratorPassword>
				<LocalAccounts>
					<LocalAccount wcm:action="add">
						<Group>Administrators</Group>
						<Name>Administrator</Name>
						<Password>
							<PlainText>true</PlainText>
							<Value></Value>
						</Password>
					</LocalAccount>
				</LocalAccounts>
			</UserAccounts>
		</component>
	</settings>
	<settings pass="specialize">
		<component name="Microsoft-Windows-Deployment" processorArchitecture="amd64" publicKeyToken="31bf3856ad364e35" language="neutral" versionScope="nonSxS" xmlns:wcm="http://schemas.microsoft.com/WMIConfig/2002/State" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance">
			<RunSynchronous>
				<RunSynchronousCommand wcm:action="add">
					<Order>1</Order>
					<Path>net user Administrator /active:Yes</Path>
					<WillReboot>Never</WillReboot>
				</RunSynchronousCommand>
			</RunSynchronous>
		</component>
		<component name="Microsoft-Windows-Deployment" processorArchitecture="x86" publicKeyToken="31bf3856ad364e35" language="neutral" versionScope="nonSxS" xmlns:wcm="http://schemas.microsoft.com/WMIConfig/2002/State" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance">
			<RunSynchronous>
				<RunSynchronousCommand wcm:action="add">
					<Order>1</Order>
					<Path>net user Administrator /active:Yes</Path>
					<WillReboot>Never</WillReboot>
				</RunSynchronousCommand>
			</RunSynchronous>
		</component>
		<component name="Microsoft-Windows-Security-SPP-UX" processorArchitecture="amd64" publicKeyToken="31bf3856ad364e35" language="neutral" versionScope="nonSxS" xmlns:wcm="http://schemas.microsoft.com/WMIConfig/2002/State" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance">
			<SkipAutoActivation>true</SkipAutoActivation>
		</component>
		<component name="Microsoft-Windows-Security-SPP-UX" processorArchitecture="x86" publicKeyToken="31bf3856ad364e35" language="neutral" versionScope="nonSxS" xmlns:wcm="http://schemas.microsoft.com/WMIConfig/2002/State" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance">
			<SkipAutoActivation>true</SkipAutoActivation>
		</component>
	</settings>
	<settings pass="windowsPE">
		<component name="Microsoft-Windows-International-Core-WinPE" processorArchitecture="amd64" publicKeyToken="31bf3856ad364e35" language="neutral" versionScope="nonSxS" xmlns:wcm="http://schemas.microsoft.com/WMIConfig/2002/State" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance">
			<InputLocale>0409:00000409</InputLocale>
			<SystemLocale>en-US</SystemLocale>
			<UILanguage>en-US</UILanguage>
			<UILanguageFallback>en-US</UILanguageFallback>
			<UserLocale>en-US</UserLocale>
			<SetupUILanguage>
				<UILanguage>en-US</UILanguage>
			</SetupUILanguage>
		</component>
		<component name="Microsoft-Windows-International-Core-WinPE" processorArchitecture="x86" publicKeyToken="31bf3856ad364e35" language="neutral" versionScope="nonSxS" xmlns:wcm="http://schemas.microsoft.com/WMIConfig/2002/State" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance">
			<InputLocale>0409:00000409</InputLocale>
			<SystemLocale>en-US</SystemLocale>
			<UILanguage>en-US</UILanguage>
			<UILanguageFallback>en-US</UILanguageFallback>
			<UserLocale>en-US</UserLocale>
			<SetupUILanguage>
				<UILanguage>en-US</UILanguage>
			</SetupUILanguage>
		</component>
		<component name="Microsoft-Windows-Setup" processorArchitecture="amd64" publicKeyToken="31bf3856ad364e35" language="neutral" versionScope="nonSxS" xmlns:wcm="http://schemas.microsoft.com/WMIConfig/2002/State" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance">
			<Diagnostics>
				<OptIn>false</OptIn>
			</Diagnostics>
			<DiskConfiguration>
				<WillShowUI>OnError</WillShowUI>
                <Disk wcm:action="add">
                    <CreatePartitions>
                        <CreatePartition wcm:action="add">
                            <Order>1</Order>
                            <Size>450</Size>
                            <Type>Primary</Type>
                        </CreatePartition>
                        <CreatePartition wcm:action="add">
                            <Extend>true</Extend>
                            <Order>4</Order>
                            <Type>Primary</Type>
                        </CreatePartition>
                        <CreatePartition wcm:action="add">
                            <Order>3</Order>
                            <Size>16</Size>
                            <Type>MSR</Type>
                        </CreatePartition>
                        <CreatePartition wcm:action="add">
                            <Order>2</Order>
                            <Size>100</Size>
                            <Type>EFI</Type>
                        </CreatePartition>
                    </CreatePartitions>
                    <ModifyPartitions>
                        <ModifyPartition wcm:action="add">
                            <Format>NTFS</Format>
                            <Label>WinRE</Label>
                            <Order>1</Order>
                            <PartitionID>1</PartitionID>
                            <TypeID>DE94BBA4-06D1-4D40-A16A-BFD50179D6AC</TypeID>
                        </ModifyPartition>
                        <ModifyPartition wcm:action="add">
                            <Format>FAT32</Format>
                            <Label>System</Label>
                            <Order>2</Order>
                            <PartitionID>2</PartitionID>
                        </ModifyPartition>
                        <ModifyPartition wcm:action="add">
                            <Format>NTFS</Format>
                            <Label>Windows</Label>
                            <Letter>C</Letter>
                            <Order>4</Order>
                            <PartitionID>4</PartitionID>
                        </ModifyPartition>
                        <ModifyPartition wcm:action="add">
                            <Order>3</Order>
                            <PartitionID>3</PartitionID>
                        </ModifyPartition>
                    </ModifyPartitions>
                    <DiskID>0</DiskID>
                    <WillWipeDisk>true</WillWipeDisk>
                </Disk>
            </DiskConfiguration>
			<DynamicUpdate>
				<Enable>false</Enable>
				<WillShowUI>OnError</WillShowUI>
			</DynamicUpdate>
			<ImageInstall>
				<OSImage>
					<WillShowUI>OnError</WillShowUI>
					<InstallTo>
						<DiskID>0</DiskID>
						<PartitionID>4</PartitionID>
					</InstallTo>
				</OSImage>
			</ImageInstall>
			<UserData>
				<AcceptEula>true</AcceptEula>
				<ProductKey>
					<Key></Key>
				</ProductKey>
			</UserData>
		</component>
		<component name="Microsoft-Windows-Setup" processorArchitecture="x86" publicKeyToken="31bf3856ad364e35" language="neutral" versionScope="nonSxS" xmlns:wcm="http://schemas.microsoft.com/WMIConfig/2002/State" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance">
			<Diagnostics>
				<OptIn>false</OptIn>
			</Diagnostics>
			<DiskConfiguration>
				<WillShowUI>OnError</WillShowUI>
				<Disk wcm:action="add">
					<DiskID>0</DiskID>
					<WillWipeDisk>true</WillWipeDisk>
					<CreatePartitions>
						<CreatePartition wcm:action="add">
							<Extend>true</Extend>
							<Order>1</Order>
							<Type>Primary</Type>
						</CreatePartition>
					</CreatePartitions>
					<ModifyPartitions>
						<ModifyPartition wcm:action="add">
							<Active>true</Active>
							<Format>NTFS</Format>
							<Letter>C</Letter>
							<Order>1</Order>
							<PartitionID>1</PartitionID>
						</ModifyPartition>
					</ModifyPartitions>
				</Disk>
			</DiskConfiguration>
			<DynamicUpdate>
				<Enable>false</Enable>
				<WillShowUI>OnError</WillShowUI>
			</DynamicUpdate>
			<ImageInstall>
				<OSImage>
					<WillShowUI>OnError</WillShowUI>
					<InstallTo>
						<DiskID>0</DiskID>
						<PartitionID>1</PartitionID>
					</InstallTo>
				</OSImage>
			</ImageInstall>
			<UserData>
				<AcceptEula>true</AcceptEula>
				<ProductKey>
					<Key></Key>
				</ProductKey>
			</UserData>
		</component>
	</settings>
</unattend>

hsehestedt · 03 Jan 2021

Welcome to TenForums!

I see that you didn't even attempt to in any way at all to follow the tutorial. I gave up looking at your answer file after just a few lines. You have both x86 and amd64 sections in the same answer file. Don't do that! If you want answer files for x86 and amd64 (x64), create a seperate answer file for each.

If you still have difficulties after that, post back with the updated answer file and we'll happily assist.

Thanks!

hsehestedt · 03 Jan 2021

George, let me ask some additional questions:

Is it your intention to setup a reference system as Kari shows how to do in the tutorial or do you simply want to create a single answer file that will automate setup?

If your intention is to create a single, simple answer file that will automate setup let me know and I'll share with you all you need to know.

If you are unsure which you need to do, share your goals with me and I'll give you my suggestions. Others my also offer their suggestions here.

George King · 04 Jan 2021

I finally found what causing mentioned problem. I'm using multi architecture images using my tool Windows Setup AIO Builder for 7-10 with install.wim / install.esd to install Windows 7 using Windows 10 setup engine in Windows 7 PE. Everything works great until I integrate IRST drivers into boot.wim. I wrote extractor for DriverPacks from drp.su, so I have many drivers integrated to have perfect multi AIO setup media. Specialy this problem is caused by integrating these driver folders from MassStorage driver pack. I don't know why it's happening, but excluding these drivers solved my problem. Driver scene always keep me to stay in alert..

Code:

IRST 8.9.8.1005_TWEAK, 10.1.0.1008_rst, 10.5.2.1010_rst, 11.2.0.1006_TWEAK

hsehestedt · 04 Jan 2021

Glad to here that you found the cause of the problem. If you need anything else, do let us know!

Taly · 09 Jan 2021

hsehestedt said:

This problem seems to be even worse than initially reported.

Suppose I created an admin user in my answer file called WinUser. After sysprep is run and the reference system is rebooted, or you image the sysprped system and install Windows from that image, if you logon as WinUser (or whatever name you use), you can successfully create new user accounts that work fine.

As noted earlier, if you enable the "Administrator" account and create new user accounts while logged on as administrator, those accounts will have problems. But it gets worse. Once you enable the Administrator account and logon to the administrator account even once, from then on even accounts that you create while logged on as WinUser will be bad. Even if you you disable Administrator again, the problems will continue.

So the bottom line is that as soon as you re-enable the Administrator account and logon to it, you are dead in the water and can no longer create usable accounts.

----
Has this issue been resolved? I had similar experiences, looks like this microsoft kb addresses what could be underlying cause.

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/tro...t-user-profile

Because the cache database is designed to be generated per-user at the time of initial log on to an individual computer, Microsoft does not recommend or support the inclusion of the cache database in the default or any other user profile that is intended to be used as a template.